Daniel Gutierrez Ardila

Daniel Gutierrez Ardila is a historian. After studying at the National University of Colombia, he obtained his PhD in 2008 from Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne University. A professor at Externado University of Colombia, he works on the political history of 19th-century Colombia and, more recently, on the history of ichthyology in South America. His latest book, co-authored with biologist Carlos Lasso, focuses on the history of an extinct species of freshwater fish from the high Andes.

The project

Title: The Bone Tongue: Fish That Tell the Story of Supercontinents

"Certain freshwater fish have made it possible to reconstruct a very ancient history of the Earth. Gradually, an unexpected geography emerged, through the successive description of closely related species native to South America, Africa, Asia and Australia, as well as the discovery of fossils from Europe and North America. The taxonomic proximity of all these organisms contrasted with their remarkable spatial separation. This research, spanning two centuries, seeks to retrace the process by which scientists decoded a hidden language, granting access to antediluvian times. It is at once a history of ichthyology, palaeontology, and biology in the service of geology, illuminating the theory of continental drift… but also a methodological history, since, based on anatomical and taxonomic traits, 19th- and 20th-century scientists faced an extraordinary challenge: to access an extra-human antiquity and render it comprehensible beyond the evidence and scales intrinsic to humanity’s brief existence on Earth."

Hosting institution: UMR 7209 « BioArch », Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle

Selective Bibliography

• Un Nuevo Reino, geografía politica, pactismo y diplomacia durante el interregno en Nueva Granada (1808-1816), Universidad Externado de Colombia, 2010.
• El reconocimiento de Colombia: diplomacia y propaganda en la coyuntura de las Restauraciones (1819-1831), Bogotá, Universidad Externado de Colombia, 2012.
• La Restauración en la Nueva Granada (1815-1819), Bogotá, Universidad Externado de Colombia, 2016.
• Camacho Arango, Carlos, Garrido Otoya, Margarita y Gutiérrez Ardila (ed.), Daniel, Paz en la República. Colombia, siglo XIX. Bogotá, Universidad Externado, 2018.
• Gutiérrez Ardila, Daniel y Torres, James, La Compañía Barrio y Sordo. Negocios y política en el Nuevo Reino y Venezuela, 1796-1820, Bogotá, Universidad Externado de Colombia, 2021.
• Peces geológicos. Pequeña historia de los bagres andinos (1801-2023), Bogotá, Taurus, 2023.
• La Regeneración. Nueva historia de un proceso político y constituyente que transformó a Colombia, 1875-1886, Bogotá, Taurus, 2024.